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A Little Something Hiding Under the Porch

I got a call last week from an older lady with a hive of bees under her back porch. She said she needed the bees removed, and preferred to have them moved rather than sprayed. Another beekeeper recommended that she call me to remove them (Thanks, I think). According to the homeowner the bees had been there about a month. If so, they must have been a tiny swarm to begin with -- I could have cupped the hive, comb and all, in two hands.

Here is a picture of the porch:

And here is the vent they were using for an entrance:

This is the entrance to the crawlspace:

As you can see the hive itself is tiny, especially for this time of year:

And just a few shots of the comb as I cut it out and banded it into frames. The space was obviously cramped, so just getting the comb into the frame at all was a challenge.

I left the nuc box next to the vent under the floor, and I plan to go back this evening around sundown to pick up the nuc, and seal up the crack over the vent. It's late in the season to do much with them. I'll look them over good and either combine them with another hive, or build a nuc around them with some generous donations of brood stores and bees from other hives.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work" -- Thomas A. Edison

Re: A Little Something Hiding Under the Porch

I went back Monday night and picked up the nuc box. The bees were all hunkered down inside the box, and I don't think there was a single straggler left behind. Tuesday afternoon I transferred them to a deep hive box, and in the process I found the queen. She's a nice big looking queen, so hopefully she will work out. There's about 2 1/2 frames worth of bees, some comb with brood, and some comb with honey (goldenrod mostly judging by the smell). I'm giving them some drawn comb, capped comb, brood, and nurse bees from my other hives. I also have them on 2:1 syrup. I have two trapouts that are winding down, but will hopefully supply them with some additional workers to help get ready for winter.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work" -- Thomas A. Edison

Re: A Little Something Hiding Under the Porch

Followup:

Here are some pics of the hive two weeks after removal. I added a frame of brood covered with nurse bees, and a frame of honey and pollen covered with bees too. As you can see in some of the photos 3-5 day old larvae are visible, so the hive has a laying queen. I've been feeding them 2:1 syrup, and they look like they are building up well.

The bees have a lot of newly capped honey in addition to the frame I gave them:

You can see the new brood here.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work" -- Thomas A. Edison

Re: A Little Something Hiding Under the Porch

Here are some pictures I took yesterday. It's about 6 days after the last set of pictures. The brood is capped, and the pattern is easier to see. The bees are still extremely docile, and even with no smoke they seem oblivious to the movement of the frames.

The brood pattern front:

and back:

And here are some shots of the queen:

Some of the uncapped brood is visible in this last photo.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work" -- Thomas A. Edison

Re: A Little Something Hiding Under the Porch

Originally Posted by sqkcrk

Adventures in beekeeping. What a great set of photos. You could use them as part of a Bee Talk. Do you do that too?

I love your tag line.

I help out when I can with our local beekeeping association. I also try to have material on hand to show folks when I am selling honey at the farmer's market. I have found that photos from removal hobs are helpful when I'm talking to homeowners who are considering trapouts/cutouts.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work" -- Thomas A. Edison

Re: A Little Something Hiding Under the Porch

Congratulations on a job well done with the cut out and the photos. I enjoyed seeing this very much. I wintered a small hive last year that turned out just fine so it gave me a different sense on how many numbers it takes. I am optimistic that your new hive will do well. I hope it does.